Making a staircase more user-friendly

GreatBigBookcase

I've bought a new house that has fairly steep stairs with a very narrow tread. I don't feel particularly safe walking down them on my own, let alone with my son in my arms, so I was wondering how easy it easy to make stairs a bit more user friendly. There's no room at either the top or the bottom to increase the length of the staircase, so I'm not going to be able to get rid of the steepness, but can I at least make them feel safer by increasing the tread?

See, in my little head, it makes sense that if I increase the tread I would need to decrease the number of steps, so can I then increase the rise of each step? The result would be fewer but bigger steps, right? Or does my logic just not work in reality?

My builder said something about lowering the staircase (it's above the cellar stairs and he thinks there's room to do this and still allow good access to the cellar) but then I'd need a platform somewhere...I guess that would make the stairs less steep, but wouldn't increase the tread, right? But I'm not convinced this could be done without making the cellar difficult to get into.

Any thoughts anyone?

anotherbaldrick

Can you do it without increasing the rising above 220mm to stay within the Building Regs ?

Private - Intended to be used for only one dwelling (domestic stair case)
These must comply to the following:
- A minimum going of 220mm
- A maximum rise of 220mm
- Pitch of no more than 42 degrees

GreatBigBookcase

Thanks for the info re building regs, will check the measurements at the house later. Have found online calculators too so once I have the measurements I can play about with them to see if it can be done within building regs measurements. Thanks